Amelia Powers Gardner explodes in defense of Utah County elections, in doing so exposes how bad Utah's elections really are ...
Yesterday the Utah County Commission hosted a presentation on Election Integrity. There was a lot a of information presented. I would suggest everyone watch it but of course YouTube took it down. Phil Lyman spoke briefly about inconsistencies in multiple precincts in Salt Lake County that he was being prevented from looking into and legislation to enable counties choose how they conduct their elections. At the end of the presentation each of the County Commissioners asked questions. When it came to Amelia Powers Gardner, she exploded on the presenter, Jeff O'Donnell.
Commissioner Gardner went after the anomalous numbers pointed out by the presenter, Jeff O'Donnell, explaining them off with college populations and maniacal left wing extremists voting for Spencer Cox. She said the presenter had accused her staff in the County Clerk's office of nefarious activity. He did no such thing. That didn't stop her from ripping into him in the meeting. Ironically her impassioned defense of Utah County's elections underscored just how awful Utah's election system really is.
"Utah County seems to be the epicenter of dysfunction"
Gary Herbert 2018
Amelia Powers Gardner was nominated in the 2018 Utah County GOP Convention for Utah County Clerk. In large part because the previous county clerk had sent Republican Primary ballots to democrats. This happened in Duchesne County in 2020. Anyone that tells you Utah has had a successful track record of universal vote by mail the last ten years IS LYING!. They should be called out, shamed immediately and never trusted on any civic statements ever again. They are a pariah and overt liars that deserve nothing in public life other than extreme contempt and mockery. Gardner's candidacy for County Clerk in 2018 and her subsequent efforts to correct these problems demonstrate that.
Commissioner Gardner responded to concerns about off the shelf systems for counting and data by pointing Utah County had built their own. This highlights two things. First, in seeing what was in place Amelia Powers Gardner didn't see fit to use any of it and decided to develop a system internally. She saw that the systems were either incapable or untrustworthy for Utah County. Second anyone else using these systems do not have the same standards Amelia had for Utah County, and by those standards can't be trusted.
The Jeff O'Donnell spoke about how universal vote by mail inflated ballot counts and invited opportunities for shenanigans. In Commissioner Gardner's explosive rage she adamantly affirmed this point. She pointed out how the county allocated 70,000 dollars to clean up voter rolls. How anyone with more than two registered voters got a phone call. Then to highlight how this didn't work she went on to state it wasn't going to happen over night in a county with more than 300k registered voters. As well as how she personally called households where it seemed parents were signing ballots for their children to inform them they may be committing a felony. Did she personally call on all these situations? How many that had that happened were identified? We don't know. I doubt it's zero. Who answers their phone? If don't know who it is I generally don't. Sending out unsolicited ballots to everyone on a voter roll will absolutely call into question the integrity of an election. Thank you Commissioner Gardner for calling this out.
Some of the things that didn't come up in the meeting was how Zuckerberg helped pay for Utah County's 2020 election, what exactly that was, and the impact it had. Commissioner Gardner was adamant about how she was working with Phil Lyman on various election integrity items. It's unclear if she will support a resolution from the County Commission endorsing Phil Lyman's bills this session. Commissioner Gardner is the biggest proponent of Universal vote by mail and ranked choice voting on the planet. She was consistently going out of her way in 2020 to contradict US Attorney General William Barr and President Trump on election integrity issues. Even participating in a hit piece on the President by the Washington Post. Amelia Powers Gardner's efforts as county clerk and statements as county commissioner highlight how awful universal vote by mail is and the many reasons we can have zero confidence in such a system.